rooDial a Wireless Volume Knob for Roon with Microsoft Surface Dial

Given how hard it is to score an RPi in any version at the moment, is it possible to get RooExtend(Dial) installed on a Pentium-based NUC? People used basic Nuc as a RPi alternative. Let me know if this is possible.

I am sorry but it is not :cold_sweat:
I only can provide and support a SD-Card image for the Pi at the moment.

Soon there will be my rooExtend box in the ā€žofficialā€œ HiFi market. It is a ready to run box so no SD-Card flashing and tinkering.
ATR Audiotrade will sell it worldwide soon but it will be more expensive as a DIY solution.
Best DrCWO

Anyone happen to know if Pi 400s work?

Thanks.

It should. I had a rooDial user using this platform. rooExtend is aware of it :+1:

Fantastic. Thank you!

Do you mind also clarifying whether a single rooExtend instance is capable of supporting multiple rooDials? Iā€™m considering his and hers dials for bedside tables.

Your products make Roon delightful to use. Thank you for continuing to support and extend them!

Dear @gTunes,
thanksā€™ for the flowers :smile:

I am sorry but the Bluetooth implementation I use allows for one Surface Sial per Pi.

As you have to put the SurfaceDial near the Pi I guess more than one Dial in one Room (Zone) will make no sense. This is why I did not spend more effort on this.

Best DrCWO

Thanks for clarifying. My use case is a dial on either side of the bed in our main bedroom. I do something similar today with Lutron pico audio remotes - our bedroom zone is a Sonos system. I was hoping to switch to two rooDials but Iā€™d prefer not to run two rooExtend instances just for that one room. I agree this is an uncommon scenario but, should you consider it in the future, Iā€™d be a customer :slight_smile: For now, Iā€™ll go with a single dial.

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@gTunes you can run a RooDial and a Roo6D on the same RPI. I prefer the look of the Dial myself but I use this feature to control my Sonos + 2 channel RoonReady system in the same room.

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Thanks for this suggestion. I do have a SpaceMouse that Iā€™m not currently using - I might do this. I appreciate the idea!

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Dear DrCWO, dear community
Iā€™m quite frustrated after trying to get the Surface Dial working.
I have a Raspberry Pi 4 and a new Surface Dial.

With Version 2.3.2 I couldnā€™t connect the dial at all.
In the first attempt, right after flashing the SD card and starting up the Pi, the extension showed ā€œsleepingā€. After a reboot, it showed ā€œunpairedā€ as expected, but I couldnā€™t get it paired even though the dial was clearly in pairing mode, with blinking led. I reproduced this 2 times, re-flashing the SD cards. I tried this with WLAN and LAN mode.

I then tried 2.3.3 Beta 5 and could pair the dial. However after using it for some minutes, I realized that it disconnected again. I thought it might just gone into standby so I waited for some seconds and after that rotated the dial just a bit. Then the volume went up to 100%.

Is this a known issue? I really donā€™t want to sacrifice my speakers, so I need to be sure itā€™s reliable, otherwise I will cancel this experiment and Iā€™m happy to give a way my license to someone else. Any help is highly appreciated. Thanks

Dear all, I must correct above post. I just did a last try before giving up and now it seems to be working stable. I have no idea why. Thanks anyway

Hi @Andreas_Meier,
sleeping sound odd for me after first boot. Never saw that :thinking:

Do you use the Built In BT of the Pi or an external Antenna. If antenna which type/brand?
Going up to 100% is very old issue that I thought I fixed a long time ago. There is still a bug in the Linux Kernel that changes the sensitivity after a lost connection. I tried to fix this in user space but it seems that you still found a hole in my workaround :smiling_face:

If you should encounter this again please get the log and send it to me.

Pairing is only open in the Pi for a limited time after Rebootā€¦

Best DrCWO

Just to double check, the dial I need is currently ~$50 on Amazon US, so if I can scavenge / repurpose a Pi, I only need to add a $30 lifetime license and Iā€™m in business? Thanks!

Yes.

/10chars

Ok, managed to score a RPi Zero W 2 on adafruit - they were in stock for about 3 minutes, and I got one.

A few questions:

  1. What case would people recommend for ensuring bluetooth range isnā€™t impacted. A plastic one like the official or an acrylic open-sided one or Flirc or Vilros orā€¦? I use Flirc on all my Ropieeeā€™s, but there Iā€™m not worried about bluetooth reaching several feet.
  2. Is there any other pro tips & tricks for how-to to install my first RooDial other than whatā€™s in this how-to (which is quite clear, not complaining, just want to make sure Iā€™m prepared with any gotchas)?
  3. Before I actually purchase the license on sellcodes, I can get RooDial up and running or at least test that it works?

Thanks all, looking forward to it!

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Your monitoring of RPi availability paid off!

Iā€™m kicking myself for not considering how cases might impact bluetooth range until now. Kicking myself.

Two of my dials are RPi 4ā€™s in plastic CanaKit cases. These have great range. I use one of them from about 15 feet away.

The other two are in Argon NEO aluminum cases. I had reception issues with these two and had to relocate them much closer to the dials they support. They work best when theyā€™re about 5 feet away. It didnā€™t occur to me that the case may be playing a role in the reception issues I ran into but it was easy to relocate them.

I didnā€™t choose the Argon cases explicitly - I was able to find a couple of kits that included the case and the Pi. If I had the choice of any case, Iā€™d go with something plastic or acrylic with my newfound (anecdotal) awareness of case impact on reception.

I canā€™t recall if thereā€™s a free trial or not but it looks like DrCWO is typing now and Iā€™m sure heā€™ll be able to tell you.

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  • FLIRC case is fine. The quality of BT depends more on environment (crowded area, mich WiFi around) than on case. FLIRC was made to be BT transparent. If you run in trouble with BT you can use an external antenna.

Currently no more Tips

You can see if BT works before the purchase. In the License Manager there is a switch to enable non licensed Roon Extensions. If enabled you can pair and see the L/R/P in brackets in the status line of rooDial if you turn or press the Dial.

Best DrCWO

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Awesome, I just watched the full videos.

To confirm one more thing (because Iā€™d prefer not to get invovled in switching devices and revoking right away!)ā€¦

Is it possible to run both a 6d and a Surface Dial off the same Pi Zero W 2, assuming i have the Micro USB/Female USB A tail which allows me to plug the SpaceMouse Wireless adapter dongle into the micro USB on the Zero? So the Pi Zero W 2 can run the dial off of bluetooth and the SpaceMouse off the wireless dongle via the Micro/A adapter?

Many thanks, I appreciate that you offer such a vibrant community and such conscientious support. Now that Iā€™ve seen your videos feels like I know you a bit better!

-John

Hi Johnny and welcome to RooExtend.
As the owner of 2 RooNuimo licenses I can tell you that it the system that the good Doctor has built

You need one Raspberry Pi per remote though sadly.

@Michael_Harris Thank you! Iā€™m wondering whether this report above tho is correct? I know you canā€™t run two dials or two 6ds off the same Pi (per recent conversation here)ā€¦ but Iā€™m wondering if I can do this (one of each) as Iā€™m trying them out.

Thanks!
John